Girly Spazms of my craftiness...

Rough & tumble kinda' girl, that has moments of making pretty things.. These are my Girly Spazms. I either craft or I go insane...

Hi there! Welcome to my GIRLY SPAZMS. I am most productive when I'm about to lose it. Easily distracted and daydreaming, I fight my way through the day just so I have moments like these. Please visit often as I am updating and adding new things when time allows . Feel free to drop me a line. Say hi, leave comments, suggestions, feedback & your experiences . Thanks for visiting my crafty blog & be sure to check out my etsy shop too.

4/1/13

Hi there everyone! So Here's just a few pictures of what I did for Easter/ Spring.. We don't normally decorate, but since I had a few days to spare, and did some projects here and there. I was able to make a few things to put around the house to hint the celebration of spring...

First... Maylin in a box

This wood sign was a family effort. Father & son put the pieces of wood together. I stained the wood, and Sam helped pick out the font for LOVE. Then the two men put it up on the wall.It came out perfect. I love the wood grain look.

I made rosettes thanks to the Cricut Ribbons & Rosettes cartridge.

I made a cute little banner to hang in the biggest Easter basket we had. The bunny in the basket was sewn by me made from left over fabric I had from a skirt I made.

Sam & I made this cute colorful embroidery thread wrapped tree.I have the pictures for a tutorial, and hope to have it up ASAP.

We tried our best to find bunnies, but ended up making our own. The one on the right is lip gloss we just happen to come across.We added moss & those cute little baskets w/ mini eggs in them were just a luck find at Michael's. The bunny on the left was handmade by wrapping yarn around a plastic egg. I thought he came out pretty cute considering I made him in less than 5 minutes.

Cute finds at target included these cute little plastic eggs.

Lent is over! Hurray for Candies!!!

The day before Easter I had a mommy day with my son, and we went thrifting/ treasure hunting.We had so much fun trying to figure out weird gadgets, playing w/ toys. Some of our finds included these faux moss balls for $2. I'll probably put them in a glass jar or something.Tony actually thought they were my marimos out of the water.

New in package a new beater scraper blade! $1! To think I almost bought one a couple weeks ago for $20.

Also new in package 8 different edges for $2. Retails for $15 at some stores.Talk about lucky right!?

2/15/13

So for namesake and because my son gave out these amazing brownies for valentine's day, we're gonna call these "knock you crazy" brownies, but this recipe is the same "knock you naked" brownies you can find all over the net just adjusted for a larger pan...These brownies are truly easy to make. I was introduced to them by our great friend linda, and although when I first read the recipe the word "double boiler" just scared the be-jebeeze out of me. Linda was right there saying "it's easy. you can do it." So I did it! The recipe below will be enough for a 10" X 13" pan.

You will need: 10 by 13 pan (greased up with some butter) wax paper (you can use clear wrap too but I would double layer it)

First step is to make the bottom layer of brownies.Turn on oven to 350 F. I like putting all the wet ingredients first. I'm sure there is a formal baking rule somewhere, but this is how I do it..

Melt one stick of butter in microwave for 30 seconds.

Place melted butter with 1/3 evaporated milk & 1/2 bag of pecans

Mix in one box of german chocolate cake mix.

This mix will be very thick. It's okay. Dump it all into the greased pan and pat it down evenly.

Throw in oven for about 9 minutes.

While this is baking, assuming you've got all your caramels unwrapped already.

Start your double boiler.

Promise someone at home brownies if they do this for you.

Here is my set up

Now here is the intimidating part for those of you who don't do this sort of thing regularly.. Put enough water in the pan where the inside pan is not bobbing around. Start the water on high... Then as soon as you here the "knocking" that means your water is boiling, and you should turn down the heat. Turn it down to medium or even low. Be patient and it will all eventually melt.

Startuse 1 cup of milk with your caramels

About 10 minutes in.Stir it periodically.

Somewhere in between the caramels melting, your bottom layer of brownies should have beeped... Take it out and let it cool on the stove while you finish the caramels.

Perfectly melted caramels without getting burned.

This is what your brownies should look like.. puffy and odd.. uncooked!

Now you're going to take your caramel and pour it right on top of this...

Then pour a package of your semi-sweet chocolate chips on top...

Now you can let this stand while you repeat and make another batch of brownies. Repeat step 1 w/ the stick of melted butter, evaporated milk (use the what's left in the can), remaining half bag of the pecans, and cake mix...After you have your clump of brownie dough, you're going to lay a sheet of wax paper( or clear wrap) down on a flat surface.

Instead of dwelling on why I haven't blogged since < insert ridiculous amount of time here > , let's just get on to this week. I was recently in a car accident in January so the doctor has put me on limited work duties, giving me limited time at work, and rest at home. When I'm feeling up to it I craft and do housework. This week was v-day prepping. I managed to make a 2 layer guava cake! yay!

Valentine's Day turned out to be a pretty awesome day. The hubs and I changed it up, and instead of our usual Napa trip, we went hiking up to Mission Peak in beautiful Fremont California. We had a cute little picnic at the top, and headed down. Made it home, showered, and went out for a great lobster, shrimp & salmon dinner. It was a really nice time.

The view from Mission Peak..We made it despite the horrible 50+ mph winds working against us.

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!

Hope you all had a great one too, and have an amazing Presidents' Day Weekend!I'm hoping that I'll get my paint this week so I can start painting & get my craft room finished finally. When it's all ready, I plan on doing a youtube craft room tour. :::keeping fingers crossed:::